Saturday 21 April 2018

Miniature sheet probable for Royal wedding on May 19th.

I’m told there will be an additional issue of special stamps on May 19th, which will cost £4.44. This sounds like a miniature sheet consisting of two each 1st class and £1.55 stamps, as with previous Royal Weddings.

Per a comment below, this is confirmed, but not by Royal Mail, as being a miniature sheet for the Royal Wedding.  As these stamps have almost certainly been delivered to us at home, pictures will be supplied as soon as possible.

Although Royal Mail will once again keep this a secret until the last possible minute, I think it fair to say that at the last briefing they said that IF they managed to get agreement for the issue and the designs in time to have it printed the wedding stamps would be issued on the day of the wedding albeit that that is a Saturday.

Update 14 May: the sheet and pack have now appeared on eBay, just under a week before the issue date.

21 comments:

  1. Interestingly, I received here in the US an "Order Advice Note" from Royal Mail for an issue on 19/5/18 for price of 5.59 pounds -- took me awhile to figure it out, but once I realized what the date was, I immediately thought "Royal Wedding minisheet" as I have a standing order subscription with Royal Mail for minisheets.

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  2. I've received an order advice note for issue date 19/05/2018 - May 2018 issue 2 for £4.89

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  3. I have received an Order Advice Note informing me of Non Visible Changes (by Walsall) to be issued on 23rd May. 2nd C, 1st C, 1st C L, 10p 20p £1, presumably on SBP2. Is it possible that there are £1 DLR SBP2 stamps in stock somewhere waiting to be delivered to Post Offices ? And what about Special Delivery to 500G, and Royal Mail Signed For Large ? Are there 'High Values' by DLR on SBP2 somewhere, or are the existing plain paper DLR stamps just issued by Tallents House, 'While Stocks Last' ? Is it possible that Walsall will ever print the 'High Values' or will these just fade away ?

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    1. So many questions, and so few official answers. Watch this space, and wow will let you know as soon as we know.

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  4. Why is there such a constant culture of secrecy at Royal Mail? Paranoia?

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    1. I really don’t know.
      While it might, perhaps, be understandable in the case of the Longest Reign, or a birthday or wedding anniversary, there really no sense in this case.

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  5. My local PO received their supply of Royal Wedding pres packs, miniature sheets and FDC's today !

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  6. I can see no good reason for this constant secrecy by the Royal Mail about certain new issues.
    If it is intended to create interest or excitement I'm afraid that it has the opposite effect
    as far as I'm concerned:I just find it very irritating!

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  7. Let me guess. The 'design' will be The Queen's head stuck on a photograph or two of the happy couple...

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    1. Not sure what else you would do for such an event?

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  8. I'm guessing RM should have Prince Charles definitive stamps on standby in case the Queen passes away, not that I'm sounding morbid, just imagine the rush they have to change the stamp design of the commemorative sets when they are issued.

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    1. Interesting point. It's not so much the definitives as the commemoratives. Back in 1952/3 there wasn't even one special issue per year, so no planned special issues which would have had the old King's head.
      Now with 8 issues in the pipeline at any time, things are a lot different.

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  9. Ian, is it your sense that these will not appear on the RM website until Saturday morning? And then stay there for just one day? It's really frustrating having to check each day - not to mention that the RM website is truly awful for finding things

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    1. I thin the announcement will be Monday 15th and they should be on the website then.

      There will be an extra 28 days to get FDCs through SHCs.

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    2. Thanks Ian - and apologies as I had thought the event was this coming Saturday when in fact it is still ten days away.

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  10. Saw the sheet at my p.o. today 2@ 1st and 2@ 1.55 NO PC but pres pack and Fed's. All issued next Fri 180518
    Tony

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    1. I suspect auto-correct has changed Tony's message, and he actually means FDCs.
      And I think the date is wrong.

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  11. As far as King Charles's accession is concerned, I'm sure any new definitive designs will be issued after a respectful amount of time has passed. Any commemoratives with the Queen's head already printed and waiting distribution will go through the normal process surely. Why would anyone want to object to this ? Presumably there will be an issue in memory of Her Majesty which will contain a small 'commemorative stamp' image of Charles. If the Queen lives as long as her mother she will probably outlive me !

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  12. Went, 'belatedly', to collect my 'Owls' stamps today and asked the Postmaster about stamps for the Royal Wedding. He was able to show me both the Miniature Sheet and the Presentation Pack; but there still seems to be no publicity about the issue on Royal Mails' shop, so you can't even pre-order them, and when I 'Googled' the stamps, nothing official comes up. It is now only 5 days away to the 'Wedding of the Year', so with no publicity, how does Royal Mail expect people to go out and buy them on the day, as the build-up to the wedding starts at 09:30, with the ceremony at about 12:00. People won't be able to watch that and go out and buy the stamps. Post Offices here close at 13:00.
    Are Royal Mail hoping the wedding will be called off and they won't have to issue the stamps. or are there heads firmly in some dark place!
    Haven't seen anything from Royal Mail about the TUC Sheetlet yet, so I can't pre-order those, as I suppose they will not be available at local Post Offices.
    Joseph

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  13. I was wondering whether a 'First' would be issued for Harry's wedding stamps, so I waded through past issues to see if one was issued for Will, and came across nothing. However a small size document was issued to Tallents House customers: 'Choose your commemorative gifts from the official Royal Wedding stamp collection'. When this document was circulated I don't know, but it states that the stamps would be issued on April 21st. Will and Cate were married on 29th April 2011.

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